Doctor Beverly Crusher walked at a fast clip on her practiced trail back to the Picard family quarters. Her shift had finally ended after having gone hours over her scheduled time, thanks to an unfortunate, but luckily not too serious, holodeck accident involving overzealous junior officers in a game of Parrises Squares.
Now that all of the officers involved had been treated, the chief medical officer was more than ready to return to her quarters where her husband, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and their 10 month-old son, René, were surely waiting for her.
Having asked the ship's computer for the time as she left Sickbay, Crusher was hoping that Jean-Luc hadn't yet put René to bed so that they could tuck him in together, as had been their practice most nights, whenever possible.
Jean-Luc had taken well to fatherhood, and Beverly knew that he was more than capable of putting their son down for the night, but she still hoped to get at least a few minutes of their young son's antics while they lasted. She knew all too well how quickly time passed when children were young, the years of putting another little boy to bed on her own having brought her to the realization. Coming up to her family's quarters, Beverly stepped inside and quickly came to a stop at the sight before her.
Jean-Luc was sitting on the couch, asleep, with little René, also deep in sleep, leaning against his chest while the infant's head rested on his father's shoulder. The boy's auburn hair was still damp from his bath, the gentle starlight from the ship's window glittering off the fine locks. Beverly smiled as she noticed the antique picture book sliding out of Picard's hand as he slept.
The tender image before her briefly led Beverly to note just how much becoming a father had changed Jean-Luc. Gone was the man who had instructed his first officer to keep all children away from him, a caring father and husband having long ago replaced him.
All hopes of tucking their son in together forgotten, Beverly moved quietly across the room and grabbed the holo-camera from the drawer of Jean-Luc's desk, forever capturing the private moment for herself.
Putting the device back in its place, Beverly crept towards the couch, lifting her Nana's afghan off the back of a nearby chair, and then she gingerly lowered herself next to her husband and son, moving the picture book to a safer place on the coffee table as she did so. Resting her head on Jean-Luc's empty shoulder, she covered the three of them with the blanket and drifted off, meeting her husband and son in sleep, leaving the family completely unconcerned, for the moment at least, with the busy ongoings of the Enterprise.